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In early 2000, Dean Richard Schmalensee of MIT’s Sloan School of Management needed to make a decision that would shape the future of the school for decades to come.

Environmental management had been an important facet at IBM dating back to the 1970s. The case describes the company’s efforts in creating and managing sustainable practices.

This note describes the coffee industry, the rise of the Fair Trade movement, and if and how Fair Trade coffee can be scaled up without compromising the economic and social standards that are at the heart of Fair Trade.

In 2008, Hannah Jones, Nike’s new VP of Corporate Responsibility, wanted the company to be a leader in creating sustainable footwear, and subsequently developed a strategy for working with the product units to do so.

Resolute Marine Energy (RME) founder and CEO Bill Staby and COO Olivier Ceberio believed their company’s wave energy desalination system could provide safe and affordable drinking water to water-stressed communities.

On a blue wall in large white letters was a quote from environmental activist and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai: “No matter who or where we are, or what our capabilities, we are called to do the best we can.” How could Auerbach continue to do the best he could while scaling up his company?

In late 2008, Vermont City Electric (VCE), a municipal electric utility company, needed to determine which investments in demand-side management (DSM) programs to undertake in the context of the budget restrictions it faced.

This series of six cases (labeled A through F, UVA-E-0233 through UVA-E-0238) presents the various dilemmas that arose in the spring of 2001 when engineers at the Seattle-based Boeing Company, unhappy with management decisions, contemplated and undertook a strike, the first “white-collar” work stoppage in the history of American business.

This case presents the issues and dilemmas that Monsanto faced in deciding how to market its genetically modified products. It also covers patent issues, intellectual property, and licensing strategies.

Neemix is a natural biopesticide developed by W. R. Grace from the neem tree, which is indigenous to rural India. Because of its medicinal and religious use by rural Indians for more than 1,000 years, the Foundation on Economic Trends is protesting Grace’s patenting of Neemix.

The Marriott Corporation, family owned and run, has always had a nonunion stance. Its “welfare-to-work” programs have angered unions but have also created a more reliable low-wage workforce. These cases (see also the B case, UVA-E-0130) deal with the company’s efforts to reduce turnover in its low-wage positions (thus saving money), help those on welfare find employment, and maintain its traditionally high standards of operation.

This case presents the social dilemmas that can result from technological innovation. Video programming offered by the Baby Bells in the 1990s was not made available to poor and rural neighborhoods. The case promotes discussion of “haves” versus “have nots,” potential costs of poor deployment, regulatory delays, and public relations.

From 2017 to 2018, the Connecticut Green Bank (“CGB”) experienced a dramatic change in fortunes. In July of 2017, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government gave the bank its prestigious Ash prize in policy innovation…

In 2014, the four largest palm oil trading companies signed an agreement to end deforestation, development of peat lands and exploitation of locals not only with their own operations, but also from all of their suppliers…

Throughout the world, Cummins Inc. meant diesels. The company designed, manufactured, distributed, and serviced diesel and natural gas engines, for transportation, construction, and power generation…

In 2015, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discovered that German automaker Volkswagen A.G. (VW) used software to cheat air emissions testing in about 590,000 “clean diesel” vehicles under the Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche nameplates in the United States. All told, VW included the software defeat switch in about 11 million diesel cars worldwide. Some assessed that up to 1,000 employees in the organization had known about the fraud and kept silent for over a decade.

Standing at water’s edge, Marina Bay Sands (MBS) annually attracted 45 million visitors who came to lodge, to gamble, to shop, to relax, to attend meetings or weddings, to eat, or simply to gawk at the facilities…